Dining across the divide: ‘I felt awkward ordering a pork chop after she’d spoken about animal rights’

10 hours ago 7

Ella, 27, London

Occupation International development policy and communications

Voting record Joined the Lib Dems aged 16, but when old enough to vote, consistently backed Labour until last year when she joined the Green party

Amuse bouche Ella spent three weeks in Covid isolation on the 20th floor of a Bangkok hospital over Christmas 2021. “A depressing way to spend Christmas but they let me out for New Year’s Eve”

Rosie, 69, Cambridge

Occupation Retired special needs teacher

Voting record Labour until Iraq. Lib Dem until the coalition. Then Green but returned to Labour under Corbyn. Now Green again

Amuse bouche On her 26th birthday Rosie fell down a cliff – “Fast, on my stomach, thinking, oh God, my number is up.” She was caught by a Dutch mountain climber lower down

For starters

Rosie Ella is engaging, interesting, bright, absolutely lovely to talk to. Also beautiful: I thought she was a model. We shared a bottle of sauvignon. I had scallops and a vegetarian version of bubble and squeak.

Ella I felt a bit guilty. Rosie had really made an effort, in a lovely purple dress, colourful makeup. I was dressed head to toe in black. I apologised for spoiling the pictures. And I felt awkward ordering a pork chop after she’d been speaking about animal rights. But I didn’t want vegetarian food, and it was very nice.

Two women sitting across a restaurant table from each other

The big beef

Rosie She thought I was going to be a climate change denier, which is of course rubbish. But my priority is social justice and that’s where I put all my energies. Climate change for me is not the main priority, though I’m definitely not working against it.

Ella She recognises climate change will have a big impact on the world, but my understanding is that she feels there’s little we can do to stop it, and that there are other more pressing issues.

Rosie I’ve been rereading Gulliver’s Travels, a satire on the human race, and the real tragedy is that nothing has changed. We are still having wars and killing each other, doing all the awful things that happen in Gulliver’s Travels. Ella did make me understand that climate change is about social justice because it adversely affects the poorest people, they’ll suffer the most. I hadn’t thought about it in that way.

Ella The climate crisis is the most significant crisis of the 21st century, and it is a fundamental point for humanity to determine which way we’re going to go. Where this is playing out is in the developing world. It is exacerbating existing conflicts, creating health crises, displacing people. I do work with organisations involved in global health and development, and they all say the climate crisis is causing more of a disaster for their work than has ever previously been seen.

Woman in black dress sitting at a restaurant table, holding one hand up

Sharing plate

Rosie We agreed about the lack of provision for mental health and the stigma still associated with that – people don’t like to say if they’re off work because they’re depressed or have mental health problems.

Ella We talked about the merits of dating apps. She was dating at the same kind of age as me: we agreed that it’s important to learn European languages so you can have affairs with French men and Italian men and so on.

Woman in purple dress sitting at a restaurant table, holding both hands up

For afters

Rosie On immigration, I have always been like Angela Merkel: have an open door. Because I feel so sad and sorry for people who need to flee their country for whatever reason. You have to be absolutely desperate to do that.

Ella In theory, and in an ideal world, I would agree. As much as we need immigration, for example to support the NHS, which is propped up by migrant workers, encouraging more is going to become socially difficult. We saw the riots last summer, people targeting immigrant and refugee populations. A lot of that was based on racism, and I absolutely don’t agree with that, but I think we would be stupid to ignore the concerns of those groups of people.

Takeaways

Rosie We talked and talked; it was a fantastic evening. Ella is an absolutely delightful young woman who I’m sure will do great things in the world. We hugged goodbye.

Ella We could have stayed many more hours: we were the last ones in the restaurant by a long way. I love talking to people of different backgrounds, hearing their experiences and takes. It’s how I shape my views on the world.